The present invention relates to document copying devices and particularly to sheet-feeding mechanism for advancing, seriatim, the individual sheets from a stack of sheets to be copied.
The stack of sheets is placed on a holder, and the mechanism automatically feeds the bottom-most sheet onto the copier, on demand, as the copier operates.
In the past, sheet-feeding mechanisms have generally been large, bulky, and heavy, supported to one side of the copying surface on or adjacent the frame of the copier, with complicated drive-mechanism to interact between the sheet-feeder and the copier when the sheet-to-be-copied is advanced to the copy position of the copier.
Illustrative of the type of document feeders known in the past is that shown in FIG. 12 herein, as well as in my own U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,735 issued on June 23, 1987. See also British Patent No. 922,780 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,881.